Andrew Pierre Hart, Tim Head, Andrea Heller, Laurence Kavanagh, Aimée Parrott
‘Whenever humanity seems condemned to heaviness, I think I should fly like Perseus into a different space. I don’t mean escaping into dreams or into the irrational. I mean that I have to change my approach, look at the world from a different perspective, with a different logic and with fresh methods of cognition and verification. The images of lightness that I seek should not fade away like dreams dissolved by the realities of the present and future…’
Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium: Lightness (1985)
In his essay-lecture on Lightness in Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1985), Italo Calvino described an auspicious image for the new millennium as that of ‘the sudden agile leap of the poet philosopher who raised himself above the weight of the world, showing that with all his gravity he has the secret of lightness.’ In this way he identifies the ‘poet philosopher’ who represents the creative leap involved in reaching another level of perception by characterising it as a ‘search for lightness as a reaction to the weight of living.’
Parafin is delighted to announce a group show that brings together five artists who, likewise, approach the world from this different perspective. The works in this show have the attributions of Calvino’s Lightness, they are: nimble, multi-dimensional and exude a specific atmosphere in relation to a metaphoric negotiation of concepts of weight, heaviness, reality and the cosmic – but essentially we are still reminded of our deep primordial relationship to the gravitational pull of the world.
The exhibition has been curated by Louisa Hunt, associate director at Parafin.
